The Beirut Memorial Chapter 642, Military Order of the Purple Heart, would like to give thanks to all those involved in making the 2013 Memorial Day ceremony one of the best yet. Thanks to all who attended and helped make the ceremony so meaningful. And thank you to attendees for all the positive comments; they were greatly appreciated.

We thank God for the beautiful day for this year’s ceremony. It has continued to grow every year — from that first year of about 250 to around 500 people this Memorial Day.

There is a tremendous amount of prior planning and work that goes into such an event and many people were involved. Our planning started in January, but we could not have done it alone.

A huge thank-you goes to Brig. Gen. Burke W. Whitman, our guest speaker, for a moving explanation of Memorial Day and to the various state and local officials in attendance. Thanks also to Chaplain Brown; and Mr. Hansley and Ms. Sutton who sang the National Anthem so eloquently. Thanks, too, for Ms. Burritt, who led the assembly in “God Bless America.”

Our gratitude is extended as well to Sgt. Maj. Turner of Camp Johnson for his logistical support in providing a color guard and firing detail. We thank the U.S. Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune for providing the Corpsmen, who fortunately were idle due to the fine weather.

Jones Funeral Home provided tents and Johnson Funeral Home provided water, tents and chairs, for which we are very grateful.

Our thanks also go to Howard Orr for his superb performance on bagpipes as well as the JROTC unit from Camp Lejeune and April Showers Florist for the beautiful wreath.

We are also grateful to the State Veterans Cemetery staff and crew for their cooperation and help in setting up and tearing down the ceremony’s venue.

Thanks to the USO for providing chairs and the MCB Camp Lejeune communications department for the great sound system.

Special thanks to Amelia Grisset who, for the third year in a row supplied the names of the deceased veterans since last Memorial Day.

After the ceremony, local Boy Scouts conducted a Flag Retirement ceremony at the American Legion. A few hundred flags were ceremoniously burned as required by the Flag Manual so many thanks to the scouts.

Last but not least, thanks to all the patriots of this great Military Order of the Purple Heart chapter — it was a job well done.

If I missed recognizing anyone for their contribution to this Memorial Day ceremony, I apologize.

As a reminder, June 14 is Flag Day and we should be flying our flags on this day. It’s also a good time to replace any tattered, torn, frayed, soiled or faded flags.

Again, thanks to all those who helped make this Memorial Day ceremony such a success and helped us to remember the day.

God bless America and our troops. Semper Fidelis

John Cooney

Jacksonville

Editor’s note: John Cooney is adjutant for the Beirut Memorial Chapter 642, Military Order of the Purple Heart.